I am delighted to have designed a major new monograph on the work of Carol Rhodes published by Skira Editore. I was working on the book throughout 2017 and the book went to print in early 2018. This is the cover of the book, with a detail of Rhodes’s 2009 painting, Open Ground and Mudflats.
I first saw Carol Rhodes’ paintings in an exhibition titled Construction Site at Glasgow International in 2016: I was intrigued by the scale of her paintings, which, despite taking in panoramic aerial views, are often much smaller and intimate than they might appear in reproduction; the exhibition also revealed the dialogue between her preparatory drawings and the finished paintings, a theme that has been drawn out in the book. It has been a pleasure working with images of Carol’s paintings and drawings, and, once again, a surprise to see the scale of the actual work when I made a visit to the house / gallery / studio she shares with the painter Merlin James, on the banks of the Clyde in Glasgow. It's been inspiring to learn about Carol's engagement with, and commitment to, the life and culture of the city.
This new monograph reproduces over forty of her paintings and, for the first time, a significant number of drawings. Specially commissioned texts by curator Lynda Morris and art critic Moira Jeffrey discuss Rhodes’s work in the context of her biography and cultural background, and examine its place and importance in contemporary art.
The monograph also includes an interview with Rhodes by consultant and former gallerist Andrew Mummery. Rhodes’s thoughts about her art have rarely appeared in print before and their inclusion here will be especially valuable. As well as the full-page plates, archival and documentary photographs accompany the texts, chronology, exhibition history and bibliography sections. The book provides the most comprehensive overview of Rhodes’s work yet available, and will be a standard reference work on the artist.
The book will be launched in London on 11 April with an exhibition of selected paintings and drawings at Charles Asprey, 130 Tyers Street, SE11 5HS. Click here to find out more.
During Glasgow International 2018, there will be a second launch, at The Glasgow School of Art, with a presentation on the work of Carol Rhodes by Kate Davis, Moira Jeffrey, Andrew Mummery and Richard Walker, introduced and chaired by Karen Roulstone, Head of Painting and Printmaking, the GSA. Click here to find out more.